for crafters: spinners, weavers, knitters, quilters etc

Make Your Own Silk Paper – The Ironing Method

Its actually very easy to make paper out of silk, and you can get some beautiful results very quickly if you use the Ironing Method.

I tried out a few variations, and made a few mistakes, and I would suggest that you work on the trial and error method too, and work out what you prefer.

There are various uses for this handmade silk paper, and you can make is as thin or thick as you like. Thick paper can be used for book covers and even writing paper, and can be painted or embellished and embroidered after its dry, and cut to any size you want.

The thin paper is great to add to any art textile design piece, and is especially dramatic as a window within a greetings card. You can also make beads by rolling strips of the paper and varnishing them – so I hope this gives you some ideas for xmas gifts!

You will need:

silk cocoon strippings (unwashed and still containing the natural gum, that the silkworms used to make the cocoons, which is what makes this method possible)

and/or

silk throwsters waste (again unwashed – this comes in white or various colours)

other odds and ends to add in when you are making the paper, such as bits of silk carrier rods, cut silk fibres, pieces of silk lap, washed throwsters waste, glitter, small beads or anything else that takes your fancy!

an iron and board or table

non stick greaseproof baking paper – must be non stick otherwise you won’t be able to peel the paper off

small spray bottle filled with ordinary water

A4 pack with everything you need – £9.99

I have put together a pack with the basics for you…depending of what size you make, it should be enough for 5- 10 pieces.

You can either buy this direct – see here – or you can find the listings for it on etsy – here, and on ebay – here.

Instructions:

Cut two pieces of the baking paper and lay one on your ironing surface, then pull out strands of the silk cocoon strippings and lay in a thin rough circle or square on top of the baking paper.

Then spray with water and place the other sheet of baking paper on top and iron the sandwich.

Lift the top paper and add some more silk strippings, and repeat as above. You can continue this process until you get the thickness you want – or you can …..

….. add one thin silk hankie on top of the ironed silk, then another thin layer of the silk strippings, spray and iron. The silk hankie does not contain gum so you need to add the strippings to fuse them.

The idea of using the silk hankie is to give a thin net that will allow you to keep some gaps in the finished paper. Lift the piece up and see if you want to add some more silk strippings. The paper will still be wet so work carefully.

Once you are happy with the piece of paper you have made, pull it off the bottom baking sheet and allow to dry. You will find you have made a very thin sheet of stable paper. The edges of the hankie will need to be cut off, as they will probably not have been stabilised.

Please note, when experimenting, you need to balance the thicknesses on each side of the hankie, and if you decide to add another one, you can. Silk hankies can be dyed before you use them and will add some lovely colours to your paper.

You don’t need to use the silk hankies – this is another version where I tried adding some white silk throwsters waste, a little washed dyed silk throwsters waste and some coloured glitter.

I wasn’t sure I liked it all that much, but its just to give you some ideas.

This is the finished dried piece. Its a lot thicker than the first piece, and you need to fill all the gaps before you dry it!

If you would like to share your pictures of the paper you make, I will be happy to put them up on another post so that others can see them and get inspiration! Please email them to me referencing “the ironing method’. If you don’t have my email address, please use the CONTACT ME page.

To make things a bit clearer, you might like to watch this video I found on U-tube!

About julz

weaver, knitter, photographer, with lots of experience of all kinds of crafts.
I sell craft supplies and specialise in spinning, weaving, felting and fibres and yarns - the links to the sites I sell on are below.

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julz craft supplies

weaver, knitter, photographer, with lots of experience of all kinds of crafts.
I sell craft supplies and specialise in spinning, weaving, felting and fibres and yarns - the links to the sites I sell on are below.